Latest on University of Minnesota coaching search as top candidates emerge, including Brett Larson
MINNEAPOLIS — University of Minnesota’s athletic director Mark Coyle spoke publicly on Monday for the first time since the Gophers and men’s hockey coach Bob Motzko parted ways last week. Despite an impressive poker face, it is clear that Coyle and the search committee are well on their way to hiring a replacement. After introducing Greg “Boom” May as the new women’s coach — a hiring that was announced Sunday — Coyle confirmed that he spent the weekend conducting Zoom interviews with prospective men’s candidates while he was at the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in St.
Louis. According to multiple sources, two of the candidates were St. Cloud State coach Brett Larson and Hartford Wolf Pack coach and Gophers alum Grant Potulny.
As of late Monday, Larson seemed to be emerging as the favorite. Larson, a native of Duluth and former University of Minnesota-Duluth defenseman, started at St. Cloud State in 2018, replacing Motzko after winning a national championship at UMD as an assistant.
He was also part of David Carle’s USA Hockey staff that won gold medals at the 2024 and 2025 World Juniors. Potulny, a former Gophers captain and assistant coach, won two national championships as a player, including being the MVP of the 2002 Frozen Four after scoring the overtime winner in the title game against Maine. He began his head coaching career at Northern Michigan.
Leading the Gophers would undoubtedly be his dream gig. Coyle did say it is not a prerequisite for the job to go to a Gophers alum. With the college landscape changing, Coyle clearly understands the importance of finding a coach who can handle everything from coaching to recruiting to the business aspect of the program.
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